


I am WHO?

by bluecalicocat



Series: A guide to life with eight supernaturals [4]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Angel Yang Jeongin | I.N, Anxiety, Demon Seo Changbin, Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Light Angst, Magic, Siren Hyunjin, Stray Kids are Family, Vampire Bang Chan, Werewolf Kim Seungmin, cyborg felix, fae lee minho, other kpop idols make cameos - Freeform, stray kids are a mess, they're going on vacation!, warlock jisung
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:54:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27558679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluecalicocat/pseuds/bluecalicocat
Summary: Not even an hour into the trip, and they've already managed five small mishaps: Losing a passport and getting called out over the ship's intercom, someone sprayed deodorant into another person's eye, being questioned by security because someone kept talking about bombs very loudly, yelling "FUCK, MY DICK" in front of a few old ladies, and lost one of the kids.How fun. Let's hope the rest of the trip isn't as disastrous (spoiler alert: it kind of is).
Relationships: Bang Chan/Lee Minho | Lee Know, Everyone & Everyone
Series: A guide to life with eight supernaturals [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1966537
Comments: 57
Kudos: 212





	1. WHO?

“Okay, I have the tickets now!”

Jeongin’s voice cuts through all the excited conversations, and seven heads turn to him at once. He realizes his mistake too late, but instead of solving it by calling them forward one at a time, he hands all the tickets to the nearest person, who just so happens to be Chan. Jeongin takes a step away, leaving the older to figure out the ticket distribution on his own.

Chan is surprised for half a second before he starts calling their names.

“This is why Chan hyung should run for president”, Felix comments, to which Hyunjin nods solemnly. It's a discussion they've had before, because Chan really is like a leader in their family, which is something all of them have accepted a long time ago.

After all, Chan was the one who collected them like strays, and is the reason they're all together now, despite most of them not having remotely similar backstories. Minho may also have played a part in their adoptions, but Chan is definitely their leader.

“This is also why his name in the group chat is daddy”, Hyunjin says.

“His name in the group chat is what now?” a voice next to them asks, and they both turn their heads to see Minho standing there, eyebrows slightly raised and arms crossed. The pair grins at him.

“Daddy”, Hyunjin repeats, not even bothering to lower his voice. Everyone around them is talking loudly anyway, so it’s not like anyone will hear. And if someone was to overhear this weird conversation, well… Weirder things have happened.

“Why are you calling Minho daddy?” the three of them hear Seungmin as he walks toward them, his expression not even fazed when he joins them. “I thought Chan hyung was daddy.”

“I know, that’s what I was saying!” Hyunjin tries to explain, but he’s not given a chance as Chan calls for him to come get his ticket. With a pout, he turns to leave.

“I don’t know why Channie thought that bringing you guys on a trip was a good idea”, Minho sighs. Felix and Seungmin grin at him. “I can already imagine the mess this is going to be…”

-

A mess, indeed. Not even an hour into the trip, and they’ve already managed five small mishaps: Losing a passport and getting called out over the ship’s intercom, someone sprayed deodorant into another person’s eye, being questioned by security because someone kept talking about bombs very loudly, yelling “FUCK, MY DICK” in front of a few old ladies, and lost one of the kids.

They’re only supposed to be on the ship for about three hours before arriving at the island where they’ll be spending the weekend, and they’ve already managed this much trouble. Chan doesn’t even want to think about what the rest of the trip will be like.

“My eye hurts”, Seungmin whines, and Chan gives him a sympathetic look as Jeongin fidgets with his hoodie. The two boys are seated on a bench while Chan stands next to them, waiting for the rest of their family to come back from wherever they are.

While the two youngest were in the bathroom, Jeongin somehow sprayed deodorant directly into Seungmin's eye, making the two of them responsible for one of the small mishaps that have happened so far, and also putting Seungmin in a bit of pain.

“I said I was sorry, hyung”, Jeongin says. Seungmin tries to glare at him, but only manages to do so for about two seconds. “At least it was just deodorant and not pepper spray, or something.”

“It was fucking antiperspirant!” Seungmin glares at Jeongin again. “It’s sucking the moist from my eyeball as we speak! My wet eyeball is going all dry thanks to you, sucking out every ounce of moisture that I’m supposed to have in my eyeball!”

Chan doesn’t want to hear any more of their conversation and is very glad when he sees that Minho and Felix are returning, the boy waving his passport around proudly as soon as he notices Chan looking at him.

“You got your passport back? That’s good, Lixie”, Chan comments once they’re close enough. Felix only sighs. And yup, all the credit for their second mishap goes to him for having lost his passport.

“I wish they didn’t have to call me out over the intercom, that was so embarrassing. Everyone here knows my name now.”

There’s not much to be said about that, because it’s true. There are speakers all around the ship.

Chan is once again saved from responding as two more people make their way toward the bench from the opposite direction, both looking flustered, as if they’ve been running. No one notices them until they get close.

While Felix sits down next to Seungmin and Jeongin on the bench, Chan turns to the two new arrivals with a questioning look.

“Did you find him?” he asks, not having to specify who he's talking about since everyone is here, except for one person.

Changbin makes a grimace while Hyunjin shakes his head. They had volunteered to go search around the ship for their missing family member, but apparently they haven't had any luck with that.

“Nope. No sign of him”, Hyunjin says as he comes to a halt in front of the eldest. Changbin stops next to him.

“I did almost lose Hyunjin, though”, Changbin informs, at which Hyunjin smacks his arm with an expression that clearly says _we weren’t supposed to tell him that!_

Chan sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. They're still missing one person, and almost lost another one while searching for him. Sounds great. He can’t even be surprised, because it’s such a typical thing for them to do.

“Okay. We need to find Jisung before he gets himself into trouble”, he says.

“Bold of you to assume he’s not already in trouble”, Jeongin jokes, but after a stern look from Chan, he closes his mouth. Their unofficial leader gets up from the bench and goes to stand next to Minho.

“Wow, you two really look like a power couple when you stand like that”, Felix comments as he looks at the pair. Minho raises his eyebrows at his comment, unimpressed.

“Bold of you to assume we haven’t always been a power couple.” A few ooh’s can be heard, but the parents ignore them in favor of organizing everyone. “Now, I’ll take Hyunjin and Felix with me and search on that side”, Minho gestures vaguely to the hallway that goes to the left side of the ship, “while Chan takes Changbin to look for Jisung on the other side of it.”

“What about us two?” Seungmin asks, still covering one of his eyes with his hand. He doesn't have to clarify which two people he’s talking about, since everyone except him and Jeongin have already been told what to do.

“You stay here and try your best not to get into any trouble”, Chan says, eyeing them in a way that implies he has absolutely no faith in their ability to do so. Jeongin is the only one who looks offended by this. “You can try to text Jisung again if you want.”

“But I have Jisung's phone in my pocket”, Jeongin says, sounding genuinely confused.

“Oh. Okay, I didn't know that”, Chan speaks again. “Then texting him won't be of any help. Just call us if he comes back here.”

Jeongin does a salute as Chan finishes, which makes Felix giggle, before the five of them take off to search for their missing family member.

-

“Binnie, if you say one more word about bombs, I will tape your mouth shut”, Chan threatens, turning to glare at the boy. They’ve already been questioned by security once because of this, and Chan really doesn’t want to test their luck again. If Changbin could just not, that would be greatly appreciated.

“Ooh, kinky”, is all Changbin has to say in response to that, and honestly, Chan is not even surprised. He simply sighs and keeps walking, looking carefully at all the people they pass in an attempt to spot Jisung in case he's around here somewhere. Chan seriously hopes so. None of them have the greatest sense of direction, and he doesn’t want to start the trip with one of them missing. That would be bad.

Chan feels his phone vibrate and takes it out of his pocket to see what's up, almost freaking out when he notices that it’s a message from Minho. A hundred worries have time to pass through his head before he clicks on the message, because what if the others have somehow managed to get into even more trouble in the short time they’ve been apart, what if something happened...

When Chan opens the message, he sees that it’s just a forwarded email about their living arrangement for the next two nights and not anything serious. He pockets his phone again with a relieved sigh, only to look up and realize that Changbin is nowhere to be seen.

“Binnie!” Chan shrieks, making at least a few people around him turn their heads, but he doesn’t care. Chan speeds up his pace, looking around so quickly that he’s sure his neck is about to snap. That would be incredibly ironic. A vampire dying from having his neck snapped.

“Chan hyung!” he hears a familiar voice call, though it’s not the one he was expecting. Chan whips his head around toward the source of the voice. It’s not Changbin, but he’s just as happy to see this boy.

Jisung gives a little wave as Chan hurries over, and once the older gets closer, he sees that Jisung isn’t alone. There’s a small kid standing right next to him, holding the boy's hand.

“You have a child”, Chan comments stupidly, staring down at the young girl before looking up at Jisung with a question in his eyes. _Who is she, and why is she with you?_ He doesn’t bother asking anything out loud.

Jisung smiles.

“Uh, yeah, this is Yuna”, he introduces the girl, who turns and presses her face against Jisung’s shirt at the attention. That makes it look like she knows him a lot better than what would make sense, considering Jisung supposedly just found the girl. This has Chan even more confused. “She got separated from her parents. I was trying to take her to the place where they make announcements, but, uh, I don’t actually know where that is...?”

He trails off, giving Chan an expectant look that the vampire assumes is his way of asking where to go. Considering Felix had to go there to reclaim his lost passport just some minutes earlier, he's confident that he can find his way there.

“I’ll take you there, but first”, Chan glances around, “have you seen Binnie? He was with me not even a minute ago.”

“Oh, yeah, I have”, Jisung says with a small sigh. Chan frowns at this, because whatever can make Jisung sigh has to be a big deal. The other continues. “I saw security walk up to him, and then he followed them somewhere. I didn’t really feel like getting arrested, so I didn’t follow.”

Why is it that these kids can’t go five minutes without getting themselves into trouble?

Chan lets out a slow breath, looking over Jisung and Yuna as he thinks. He should probably text Minho about the situation, have the other deal with finding Changbin while Chan leads Jisung and the little girl to the so-called “announcement place”.

Yeah, that sounds like a plan.

-

Minho holds onto Changbin firmly as they walk back toward the bench where everyone else is waiting, not wanting to give the demon even the smallest chance to get himself into trouble again. He's gotten in trouble with security twice now. No need to try for a third time.

It’s barely a two-minute walk, but that doesn't mean he’s any less worried, because his seven disaster boys can get themselves in trouble quicker than that. And yes, that includes Chan. He, along with Minho, acts responsible most of the time, but then there’s that one time he thought it was a good idea to put a sled on top of a skateboard so they could go sledding without any snow.

Yeah, he's not always responsible, either.

When Minho and Changbin reach the bench where the other boys are waiting, Hyunjin immediately stands up and dramatically flings himself at Changbin, letting out a loud gasp.

“Hyung! I thought I’d never see you again. I thought for sure you were gonna get arrested this time!”

“Maybe if he would stop saying the word bomb every other sentence…” Chan mumbles in a low voice from where he’s seated on the floor, but no one pays attention to him.

Since the bench is already full, Changbin crouches down on the floor next to Chan, and as soon as he’s seated, Hyunjin drapes himself over Changbin, putting his head in the demon’s lap.

Minho sits down on Chan’s other side with a small smile. Annoying as they may be, these people are his family for a reason, and they’re actually pretty fun most of the time. When they’re not getting themselves arrested, that is. Or spraying deodorant into each other’s eyes. Or getting lost on big ships. Or losing their passports, or… yeah. You get the point.

-

The remainder of the journey is surprisingly uneventful. Hyunjin, Jisung and Felix play some weird game where they hit each other’s heads that none of the others really understand, Jeongin plays cards with Minho and Chan, while Changbin and Seungmin share a pair of earplugs to listen to music.

When the ship reaches its destination, they haven't caused any more problems. That’s an impressive achievement, at least by their standards.

The next stop is the baggage claim, so now they only have to hold the group together until they can get there. Easier said than done.

Chan makes them all hold hands so they won’t lose each other, which Changbin says is unnecessary. No more than a second after he says that, Minho is yelling at Hyunjin to get back from where he tries to wander off to pet a dog, and Changbin doesn’t object again.

“No Lixie, you can’t hold Jisung’s hand, then we’ll just lose both of you”, Chan argues as he sees the twins reach out for each other, and Felix pouts despite knowing that Chan is most likely right about that. It passes as soon as Seungmin holds out a hand to him, one that Felix gladly takes.

After taking Jisung’s hand in his own, Chan pairs Changbin with Jeongin, hoping that the presence of their maknae will keep him from getting himself arrested. That leaves Hyunjin to hold Minho’s hand before they can all head for the exit and toward the baggage claim.

They’re slowed down by the stream of people around them, but at least their strategy of holding hands with each other keeps them from getting separated.

All of them have almost gotten down the stairs to the arrival terminal, so close to their goal, when Jisung pulls on Chan’s hand jerkily, and the older looks over at him to see a tense expression on his face. He’s paler than normal.

“Can we please…” Jisung starts, pulling Chan to the side, and he doesn’t have to finish the sentence for Chan to understand what he means. The unease on his face is enough.

There are lots of people trying to get off the ship at the same time, an overwhelming stream of people, and the fact that they’re in the middle of it probably doesn’t help. Chan has no chance to tell any of the others what’s going on before the two of them are moving to the side of the hallway.

Everyone around them keeps moving, but Jisung seems to breathe a little easier now that he’s not in the middle of everything. Chan catches sight of Minho’s dark hair disappearing further away, but knows that they’ll catch up to them in a minute.

He turns to Jisung.

“Sung, you okay?” Chan asks, squeezing the boy's hand gently.

“Yeah, yeah, sorry”, Jisung mumbles, his eyes downcast. “It’s just… It got a little much.”

Chan understands. He doesn’t pressure, but he also knows they need to go find the others soon, or at least let someone know what’s happening so they don’t start worrying. It's not the first time Jisung has had to leave a crowd because of anxiety, but it doesn't happen often enough that the others will be able to guess what's going on.

“It’s okay, Sungie. Do you wanna try to follow them, or wait until there’s less people?”

Jisung looks up at this, eyes scanning the crowd. He then turns to Chan with a weak smile.

“We can go, hyung. I don’t wanna keep them waiting.”

He doesn’t argue though, simply keeps his hold on Jisung’s hand as they walk, sticking to the side of the hallway so that Jisung hopefully won’t get overwhelmed again. The rest of them are already out of sight, but can’t be too far away.

Finding the baggage claim takes less than five minutes. By the time they get there, the others have arrived already. Chan does a head count when he sees them, just to make sure that no one is missing, while the rest of the boys show looks of confusion.

“Where did you go?” Changbin asks once they’re close enough, but Chan gives a small shake of his head. The others recognize the gesture and understand not to push it.

They all turn their eyes to Minho just in time for him to clap his hands together, asking for their attention.

“Good job guys, no one got lost yet! We’re gonna go to the bike rental place now and get bikes. It’s supposed to be opposite the street from here. So, follow me and Chan and try not to get lost.”

Their little group sticks with the buddy system to avoid losing each other, since it’s proven to be effective this far.

Minho drags Hyunjin along as he walks up to Chan and Jisung, giving the younger boy a worried look. Chan doesn’t even need Minho to say anything. Wordlessly, he gives Minho Jisung’s hand, and Hyunjin jumps over to the oldest, taking Chan’s hand in his. Jisung pairs up with Minho instead.

It's not that Jisung and Chan don't want to walk with each other, but Jisung takes comfort in Minho's presence, and sometimes Minho needs the comfort of being right next to Jisung when the younger is anxious. It makes Minho more relaxed when he can make sure the boy is fine.

Just like Minho had said, the bike rental place is only across the street from the arrival hall, but they still don’t manage to get there easily.

Felix and Hyunjin almost get hit by a car as they naruto run across the street, and Jeongin nearly hits Changbin in the face with a bag when they both get very close to tripping over Seungmin’s feet while doing some odd dance.

Yeah, they’re all a bit of a mess, but that’s what makes this so much fun.

-

“Gender segregation is kind of pointless when people are gay”, Hyunjin says. He gets a few hums of agreement from his brothers as they all look over his shoulder at the list of rules placed on the wall.

At the moment, seven of them are sitting outside a tiny wooden cabin that apparently works as some sort of reception for the camping place they’re at, while Chan is inside to get keys for the cabins where they’ll be staying the next two nights. The list on the wall is meant for classes that come here on school trips, so it doesn’t apply to them, but they can all still agree that it’s a dumb rule.

They’re all talking when Chan comes out again, holding a folder in his left hand and a bunch of keys in the other. He shakes the keys a little to get their attention.

“One person from each cabin should get a key, so I don’t have to keep track of all of them”, he says, which immediately sets the rest of them into motion as they find their roommates and decide who will take the key.

Hyunjin, Seungmin and Jeongin all get up to grab a key each, while everyone else stands back. Their family has been split up between three cabins for this trip, so they have three keys to keep track of.

Once the keys have been handed out, Chan continues.

“Okay, kids! We have dinner reservations at seven, so we’ll need to leave in about an hour to make it there on time, so we can just chill until then.”

No one has any objections. They’re all quick to rush toward the cabins that are placed within view from the reception.

All the cabins are small and wooden, the wood a dark brown color. Even from the outside, you can see that they all only have one room, but that works well enough. The groups they’ve split into are small, and they'll only be staying here for two nights.

Their three cabins are conveniently placed right next to each other, so they don’t have to look long to find them.

They all stop on the graveled road right outside their cabins, saying a quick “see you later” before splitting up to go with their roommates and unpack. Chan raises his eyebrows as he watches Hyunjin run off with Felix and Jisung toward the cabin in the middle.

“I think we’ve made a mistake”, he comments, earning a snort from Jeongin.

“Just look at the other group”, Jeongin tells him, and Chan does.

Seungmin, Changbin and Minho are walking calmly toward the third cabin, leaving the last pair to watch them go. Well, putting those three together is also a bad decision on their part.

“That group will commit a murder, and they’ll get away with it”, Jeongin says, and the older can’t do anything but agree with that. If anyone dies tonight, they know which cabin will be responsible.

They’ve only arrived, and this trip has already been great(ly disastrous). And well, it can only get better from here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi and welcome back to Absolute Chaos™


	2. Question

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I guess we’ll just have to settle this like real men”, Hyunjin says, trying to sound intimidating, but his attempt is not successful.
> 
> Felix nods from opposite him.
> 
> “A dance-off.”
> 
> “That’s not…” Changbin starts, but then sighs as the rest of them move back to clear a space in the middle of the aisle.

“Okay, whoever answers first gets the rest of my food”, Felix says, looking between Jisung and Jeongin, the only two who aren’t preoccupied with other conversations at the moment. They both lean forward, prepared to listen closely to his question. “What’s 58 multiplied by 42?”

“Seven!” Jisung yells out before he’s even finished asking. It makes Chan and Minho, who are seated next to and opposite him by the table, turn their heads in question. Many of the other people in the restaurant also turn around upon hearing the loud voices.

Felix simply grins and hands his fries over to Jisung while their youngest sputters in confusion.

“Bu- What? But he… What?” Jeongin sputters, eyes on Felix. “That’s not right! It wasn’t even close!”

Felix nods wisely as both Chan and Minho narrow their eyes at him.

“That is true”, he says, “but he still answered first. I never said the answer had to be right.”

He sends Jisung a thumbs up as the other boy grins at him. Jeongin turns away from them with a clearly faked and exaggerated expression of disbelief, trying to look like he’s actually upset with them.

“Oh, the heartbreak, the betrayal”, he says dramatically. “My only two friends turned their backs on me, oh, the pain and devastation!”

At this, Minho rolls his eyes.

“You’ve spent too much time around Hyunjin”, he comments. “And besides, they aren’t your only friends.”

They don’t get to keep discussing that as Chan turns to the other boys seated around their table, trying to steer the conversation in a more sensible direction.

“So, what do you wanna do after dinner?” he asks.

“Explore the town!” Jeongin says excitedly, leaning forward on his elbows with bright eyes as he completely forgets that he’s supposed to act upset.

“Swim”, Hyunjin and Felix chorus before looking at each other in surprise.

“We should go get snacks first”, Minho suggest. Everyone else nods at that, agreeing, and Minho continues. “There’s supposed to be a supermarket just up the hill from here.”

-

“There’s supposed to be a supermarket just up the hill from here”, Changbin says in a mocking tone, earning himself a smack to the back of his head from Minho.

The family is currently standing in the middle of a road, each of them leading one of the bikes they’ve rented. They’re at the top of a hill, having just maneuvered both themselves and their bikes up the cobblestone road, but there’s no supermarket in sight. In fact, they’ve walked past many streets without any sight of it.

Maybe it would have worked better if either of them had any sense of direction.

Seungmin and Hyunjin are trying to make sense of the map that Hyunjin has on his phone, but the directions aren’t much help. They’re just as lost.

“If we just walk around and make sure we don’t go downhill, we’ll have to find a supermarket eventually, right?” Felix suggests, eyes on Chan. The older nods slowly.

“I mean, I guess”, Chan speaks. “But we googled the opening hours, and it closes in half an hour, so we need to get there soon.”

Felix furrows his brows at this. It means they actually need to know where they’re going and can’t just run around without a plan, which is a shame. They’re great at doing that.

Chan looks around the group again, and is glad that he does so, because the first thing he catches sight of is Jisung and Jeongin as they start to wander away from the others.

“Hey!” he calls out, not wanting to lose anyone. If they’re gonna be lost in this unfamiliar town, they should at least be lost together.

Jeongin turns his head and grins at him, which makes Chan raise his eyebrows pointedly, clearly asking what they think they’re up to. Jeongin doesn’t respond as he follows Jisung further away from the group.

They both stop with their bikes right beside the sidewalk, and it takes Chan way too long to realize what they’re doing, but once he does, he’s surprised no one else thought of it sooner.

“Excuse me, hello”, Jisung says to a woman walking by. He attempts a small bow toward her, but the bike hinders him and he hits his own chest instead. She smiles kindly at him nonetheless.

“Yes, may I help you?”

“My friends and I are looking for a supermarket, but we got lost. Could you please give us directions to the closest one?”

By now, Changbin and Minho have also turned to listen in on the conversation with the stranger. The woman senses all of them looking at her, and smiles at the rest of the boys before replying.

“Yes, sure. You’re actually very close”, she says, and then proceeds to tell them how to get there. Once she’s done explaining, both Jisung and Jeongin thank her before walking back to the others with matching grins on their faces.

Chan ignores them and turns toward the two boys that are still trying to figure out the map.

“Hey, we think we know how to get there now”, he tells them, and Hyunjin looks up.

“Well, we think we just figured out the map, but that’s good, I guess”, he replies, taking his phone and putting it in his pocket. “Should we leave our bikes here?”

Chan looks around, his eyes landing on a small rack that’s meant for you to lock your bike by. He gestures toward it in response to Hyunjin’s question, and the younger turns to lead his bike over there, the others following once they see where he’s going.

Chan lets everyone else go first before he brings his own bike over and locks it next to theirs. When he turns around again, Jeongin has already started to lead everyone in the direction the woman gave them. Chan catches up to them quickly, putting an arm around Jeongin as he does, and then they walk.

-

They’ve barely stepped inside the supermarket when Hyunjin starts running away from the group, his intention becoming clear as soon as he grabs a shopping cart.

“Hey, Innie, I’ll push you!” he says happily, gesturing to the cart. The younger walks over to him, climbing up into it with the help of Seungmin. When he’s seated, Hyunjin starts pushing while Seungmin walks next to them, helping to steer it by holding a hand on the side of the cart.

In the meantime, Felix grabs Jisung’s hand and starts dragging him toward the section with snacks, both boys talking their heads off about something that the others can’t really make sense of. Changbin follows behind them more calmly.

“No, it’s always completely random, just out of nowhere”, Jisung’s voice can easily be heard even to the boys walking behind him. After speaking, he lets go of Felix’s hand and drops down, doing a pretty smooth roll across the floor before jumping to his feet again, which makes Felix laugh out loud.

Changbin groans while Chan widens his eyes, not understanding the context for that in the slightest. Honestly, he’s just glad there aren’t any other people in the store at this hour.

Jisung turns to Minho once he’s on his feet again, holding out one of his hands with a bright smile as he waits for Minho to take it, which he does, but he also rolls his eyes at the boy’s antics. How he can go from randomly rolling on the floor to being so cute, Minho doesn’t know.

“I want chocolate”, Jisung announces before pulling Minho along toward the shelf, leaving Felix and Changbin to stare at each other in amusement over what just happened. Without saying a word, they also take each other’s hands and walk over to the shelf with candy, going to pick out what they want.

In the distance, you can hear Hyunjin’s loud laugh, but none of them turn around at that. They’re too used to hearing him by now.

Changbin’s attention is caught by Felix squeezing his hand, silently asking for the older’s attention. He turns to look at Felix.

"Hyung, can you please buy for me?” the boy asks sweetly, holding a bag of candies in his other hand. “My money is back in the cabin. I promise I'll pay you back!" 

Changbin doesn’t have to consider for even half a second.

“Yeah, of course I’ll buy it, but you don’t have to pay me back”, he says.

“But I have money, it’s just that I left it in my bag in the cabin.” Felix seems confused by his response.

"No, no, it's my treat.”

“Oh.” They’re still holding each other’s hands, even though they’re standing still now. “Oh, okay. Thanks, hyung!”

The moment is interrupted by a shopping cart turning around the corner into the aisle they’re in, accompanied by three boys, two of who are laughing loudly. Seungmin is right next to them, looking slightly exasperated.

Trailing behind the trio is Chan, carrying a selection of drinks.

“I knew you were gonna forget to get drinks, so I got some for all of us”, Chan explains when he sees the look Changbin sends him. Well, that makes sense.

Hyunjin, who’s been pushing the cart with Jeongin in it, stops when he sees the bag Felix is holding.

“Ooh, I didn’t know they had that candy here”, he comments.

“Yeah, but this is the last one”, Felix replies, waving the plastic bag a little. Hyunjin gasps at that. Chan glances between the two of them, clearly sensing what’s about to come.

“But I want it!” he exclaims, letting go of the shopping cart and walking up to stand in front of Felix, a pout on his face. Felix pretends to be upset.

“But I already have it!”

“You don’t even have any money!”

“I’m buying it for him”, Changing adds. Despite knowing that their small argument is a joke, he doesn’t really want to see how far they’re willing to take it. Past experience has taught him that there’s no limit to how serious they can get about these jokes.

“You could just share”, Chan mutters in the background. His suggestion is ignored by the two younger boys.

“I guess we’ll just have to settle this like real men”, Hyunjin says, trying to sound intimidating, but his attempt is not successful.

Felix nods wisely from opposite him.

“A dance-off.”

“That’s not…” Changbin starts, but then sighs as the rest of the group moves back to clear a space in the middle of the aisle they’re in without question, even Chan. As Changbin turns around to go pay for the package the two boys are currently fighting over, he mutters in a low voice.

“I am the backbone of this family.” Of course, no one hears him say it, but he means it just as much anyway.

The two dancers don’t notice when he takes the package, nor do they notice him leaving, too caught up in preparing for their duel.

By now, Jisung and Minho have also made their way back over to the group again, joining the attempted circle with Hyunjin and Felix in the middle.

They’re both trying to stare menacingly at each other. Neither of them is succeeding.

“Prepare to watch me hit on all sixes, you heeler!” Hyunjin says, obviously trying to threaten the other boy, but Felix only frowns.

“I don’t even know what that means”, he admits before glancing around at the others. “Am I supposed to know what that means?”

Chan shakes his head while Seungmin sighs, which is all Felix needs to figure out that this is some more of that 20’s slang Hyunjin has been learning recently. He has no idea why the other boy has been teaching himself slang from the 1920’s, but he’s been using it excessively for the past month, and here they are.

Hyunjin looks offended that no one understands his insults.

“A heeler is a bad dancer, you should know this!” he argues. No one else agrees, because none of them had known what a heeler was before this very moment. Chan and Minho are obviously not included in that statement, since both of them were alive in the 20’s.

“If I’m a heeler, what does that make you?” Felix questions, genuinely wondering.

“A floorflusher”, Hyunjin responds proudly. He refuses to acknowledge the way Seungmin snorts at that, keeping his focus on Felix even as he hears the other boys chuckle.

Jeongin claps his hands loudly, interrupting their conversation.

“Just start dancing, please”, he requests from where he’s still sitting in the shopping cart.

The store is playing some music on a low volume in the background, but there’s an unspoken rule that they put on their own music when they have a dance-off. Chan brings out his phone and searches for something with a grin on his face.

The familiar beginning of Twice’s “Likey” starts to play, and both boys jump into position on reflex.

No one is surprised that both of them know the moves a little too well, executing them with practiced perfection all the way up until the first chorus ends. At some point, Jisung gets the rest of them to clap along with the beat, and there’s a bunch of encouraging cheers coming from all of them, because they’re supportive like that.

Hyunjin doesn’t seem to know the moves after the chorus. That becomes obvious from the panicked expression on his face, as well as the way he slowly drops down in a way that’s far too sexy for the song, and definitely not part of the choreography.

In addition to that bit of improvisation, he also has them all laughing their heads off as he starts grinding against the floor.

If possible, they’re even louder than earlier, their laughter easily heard throughout the rest of the store. The fact that they were supposed to be quick in and out of here is long forgotten.

“Felix wins”, Seungmin announces in between two breaths from where he’s sunk to the floor, a bit winded from how hard he’s laughing. And despite Hyunjin’s great effort, victory is given to the freckled boy, who’s also on the floor at the moment.

When they turn to look at the candy shelf, though, they see that the bag of candy they’ve been fighting over isn’t there anymore.

“What…” Felix begins, but then Changbin walks around the corner with the most hilarious and embarrassed expression they’ve ever seen. The answer as to why he’s looking like that comes not even a second later, as a shop employee also steps into view from behind Changbin, not even batting an eye at the scene she’s faced with.

“If the store wasn’t closing right now, I would have to kick you out for being too loud, but we’re closing now so I guess not. Just pay for your stuff and leave, please.”

They all feel a bit bad about annoying the poor employee, but she doesn’t seem to care that much as she heads back to the cash register.

The ones who have something to pay for all follow her there with sheepish expressions on their faces, while the remaining ones decide to wait outside. That’s only Changbin, since he’s paid already, as well as Minho and Felix, who didn’t bring any money of their own.

There’s a bench right outside the store where the three of them sit down to wait for the rest. Felix shares some of his candy with Changbin while Minho keeps his eyes on the door and waits.

Not even a minute later, the door opens to reveal Jisung. He smiles widely upon noticing Minho’s eyes on him and walks to the boys on the bench. All he bought is a chocolate bar, which he takes out from his pocket as he sits down next to Minho and opens it.

The older puts an arm around him, pulling him closer as he unwraps the candy.

At first Minho doesn’t notice Jisung’s outheld hand right in front of his face, but then the younger speaks.

"Here, you can have half."

Minho looks down and sees him hold out half the piece of chocolate he’s gotten, offering it to Minho with a smile on his face. When the older doesn’t immediately take it, he continues.

“You didn’t bring your money, so I thought I’d share mine…”

He trails off, and Minho realizes that he’s been staring for way too long and hurries to take the offered chocolate while sending him one of his warmest smiles, the ones reserved for when he really means it.

“Thanks, Jisungie”, he says. “I appreciate it.”

He doesn’t say anything dramatic, but Jisung still flushes, bending his face down to not let the other see the bright smile that takes over his face. It’s cute.

Jisung good at telling his family members how much he loves them. It’s something he does often, and he does it loudly, but the times that really mean something are the ones like these. The private moments, when he seems almost shy to say it. He has lived with Chan and Minho for over three years now, but he still hasn’t gotten used to having people actually care about him.

Minho keeps his arm around Jisung as they wait for everyone else to pay, the smile not leaving his face.

-

“Hey, so I accidentally ate the last of Felix’s candy, how long do you think I’ll survive?” Hyunjin asks.

“Ten”, Seungmin replies, to which Hyunjin scrunches up his nose.

“Ten what?”

“Nine…”

Hyunjin’s eyes widen as he scrambles to get away from the boy.

After leaving the supermarket, they had decided to get their bikes and go down to the beach and just hang around, which is exactly what they’ve been doing. They’re spread out on a patch of grass not too far from the actual beach, which isn’t very big, but there aren’t any other people here so at least they have it to themselves.

For the most part, they’ve just been talking and eating their snacks (and also other people’s snacks, at least in Hyunjin’s case). It’s been nice, and even though the sun has disappeared beneath the horizon, the heat still lingers.

Chan and Jisung are sitting close to each other and talking softly when Felix comes crawling toward them. Jisung catches sight of him first and smirks, seeing how his near twin is headed for Chan. When the vampire notices the freckled boy, Felix is already throwing himself over his lap.

“You’re my new pillow”, Felix announces, his voice a bit muffled from how he has his cheek smudged against Chan’s leg. Chan has to resist cooing at his clearly tired kid.

“You’re very cute when you’re half-asleep”, he says instead.

“Oh. Thanks.” Felix thinks for a second. “You smell nice.”

Chan is so glad that Felix can’t see the expression he makes at that, even though Jisung raises his eyebrows at the pair.

“Jisung, don’t even say anything”, Minho says from somewhere in the background, but Jisung only grins at them.

While they settle down, Jisung decides to leave Chan and Felix alone, and turns his head to find someone he can join instead. He spots Changbin sitting a bit away from their parents, and can’t help but smile.

“Hyung”, he says, crawling over toward him. Changbin doesn’t turn around, though it’s clear from the way he angles his head that he’s heard him. “Hyung, you wanna go stargaze with me?”

Changbin finally turns around at this. He thinks about it for a moment, though it’s very clear that he’s just pretending.

“I guess that doesn’t sound too bad”, he eventually says. “As long as I get to braid your hair.”

Jisung stills at this, then shrugs.

“Sure, okay. My hair isn't that long, though.”

Changbin seems very satisfied with that and sends the younger a smile.

-

“Star-gazing was a good idea”, Changbin comments, his hand in Jisung’s hair as the boy lays over his lap.

They’ve wandered away a bit from the others, though they can still see their spot at the beach. There’s a braid in Jisung’s hair after Changbin braided it, so now they both have their eyes turned to the dark sky up above.

“It’s kind of cold”, Jisung comments in a low voice, and Changbin notices the goosebumps on his bare arms. Of course. He’s only wearing a t-shirt, and even though it’s warm as long as the sun is up, it’s currently nighttime, and that brings chillier temperatures.

Changbin tries to shrug off his own jacket without jostling the boy on his lap too much, but Jisung still turns his face toward him in confusion at the movement. When the demon holds it out for him to take, Jisung widens his eyes and shakes his head.

“No, then you’ll be cold”, he argues.

Changbin doesn’t lower his arm, keeping the jacket held out toward him.

“No, you take it. This place is very close to the sea level, so the cold won’t bother me, anyway.”

Jisung doesn’t have the energy to question the logic behind that statement. If Changbin is trying to take advantage of his lack of knowledge about demons, he’s succeeding, because Jisung has no idea if that could be true.

He sits up so that Changbin can put the jacket around him, and then he doesn’t lie back down, instead turning his face to Changbin.

“Do you wanna go back to the others?” Jisung wonders, and after a shrug, Changbin nods in agreement.

They help each other up and then walk back over to the rest of the group. When they get there, they notice that three of the boys are now standing, looking like they’re in the middle of… Well, in the middle of something.

“What are they doing?” Jisung asks as he gets settled on one of the towels they’ve put on the ground, Changbin going to sit beside him.

Chan turns his head toward them at the question but doesn’t answer, probably staying quiet for the sake of the boy currently asleep on his lap. Felix usually isn’t a light sleeper, so the concern isn’t exactly warranted, but of course he still tries.

“Hyunjin, Seungmin and Jeongin are doing some theater thing”, Minho answers instead. He doesn’t look like he’s very invested in it.

“Oh no, is it some kinky roleplay shit?” Jisung asks, though he doesn’t sound too opposed to that idea.

“No, no!” Chan interjects. “Just them trying to act. Except Seungmin keeps pointing out the plot holes in everything Hyunjin suggests, so they haven’t gotten very far with it.”

That sounds exactly like something Seungmin would do. Jisung snorts.

“You absolute dewdropper!” Hyunjin exclaims loudly, an exclamation that’s quickly followed by Seungmin sighing and Jeongin face palming. Two completely valid reactions.

“Hyunjin hyung, I have no idea what that means”, Jeongin says exasperatedly. “Literally no one aside from you knows words like that.”

If possible, Hyunjin only seems more annoyed with this.

“A dewdropper is a young, unemployed man who basically sleeps all day”, he explains.

Jeongin only looks confused.

“Then why are you calling Seungmin hyung a dewdropper?” he questions. “I thought you two were employed at the same café.”

Hyunjin gives him a blank stare.

“We’re acting here, Innie”, he deadpans. “Something you both seem to struggle with grasping the concept of. Acting, it means that what we’re doing isn’t real.”

He does his best imitation of a condescending adult as he says that last part, effectively earning himself a smack to the back of the head from Seungmin, who doesn’t look apologetic at all, not even after Hyunjin lets out a loud “ow!”

Chan, who’s been watching them up until now, leans back on the ground and closes his eyes.

“Wake me up if they ever actually start anything”, he mumbles.

If you ignore all the chaos they caused earlier, it’s actually a pretty calm night. Definitely the nicest one in a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there might be inaccuracies when it comes to the 1920's slang because i got it all from a post on pinterest, but in my defense, hyunjin definitely learned it from a similar place and didn't fact check any more than i did


	3. Awkward silence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Do you think they sell cans of compressed air in here?" Seungmin asks.
> 
> "I don't think so", Hyunjin replies. "Why?"
> 
> "I wanna make a flamethrower with a lighter and a can of compressed air, as you do."
> 
> Chan raises his eyebrows and says, in a very confused voice, "No...? I don't."

“Don’t talk to strangers”, Minho says as he grabs Jeongin and steers him away from the guy on the sidewalk that the younger had been about to approach. Jeongin pouts, but he can’t really argue with Minho. The guy he’d been about to approach does look kind of shady.

“But I really wanted to pet his dog.” Jeongin pouts. Before Minho can respond to that, Hyunjin yells from somewhere in front of them.

“Come on! Get a wiggle on, guys.”

Minho assumes that means he wants them to hurry up. That would make sense. He gives Jeongin a pointed glance, and even though he’s still pouting, the boy hurries up and doesn’t mention the shady guy or his dog again.

Minho misses the times when traveling somewhere didn’t include shepherding a group of chaotic supernaturals with no self-preservation skills around. Back when it was just him and Chan, they could use their wings (Minho) and vampire speed (Chan) to get wherever they needed to go. Now, it takes much longer.

Not that he actually minds.

“Are we lost?” Seungmin asks, walking up next to Minho. The older shrugs.

“I don’t know, ask Chan. He’s the one who’s supposed to know where we’re going.”

Seungmin does not look impressed with this answer.

“So you’re just going to follow Chan wherever he goes?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

Seungmin sighs, but Minho sees the smile on his face and knows he’s not actually annoyed.

Somewhere in front of them, they can hear Jisung and Hyunjin getting increasingly louder as they make their own version of some song from a musical that Minho can’t place at the moment. Changbin seems to be doing some kind of adlibs, and Felix is laughing at them while Jeongin steps aside and pretends not to know them. Based on the expression on Seungmin’s face, he wants to do the same.

An old lady on the street stares at them as they walk past, and Seungmin gives the woman one of his most polite smiles.

“They’re adopted”, he says apologetically. Minho gives him an odd look.

“You’re all adopted, Seungmin.”

“Yeah, but Jisung and Hyunjin are more adopted. At least when they’re acting like this.”

Minho hits his shoulder, and Seungmin pretends that it hurts way more than it actually does, which makes Minho roll his eyes. He wonders if it’s Hyunjin’s fault that everyone is so dramatic nowadays. He doesn’t remember the kids being like this when they first got here.

“I know where we are now!” Chan shouts from the front of the group, interrupting their conversation. He turns around to face everyone.

Minho raises his eyebrows at his words.

“Are you saying we were lost before?” he questions, but Chan waves him off.

“If we continue up this road, the shop we’re looking for should be somewhere on the left.”

None of the kids seem bothered by the fact that Chan doesn’t seem to be sure where they’re going, and Minho considers himself a pretty chill person, so he doesn’t question Chan any further. They continue forward on the cobblestone road, passing plenty of small shops on both sides, but none of them look like the one they’re searching for.

Chan is the one who found this place online. Apparently, it’s some sort of café-shop thing, owned by one of the local witches. None of them know much about the place, but it had positive reviews online and that’s good enough for them. They usually have to hide their supernatural quirks in public, so it’s always nice to find a place where they don’t have to do that.

“Are we there soon?” Felix asks a few minutes later. Several of the others repeat his question, partly to be annoying and partly because they’re genuinely wondering.

Chan glances down at the map on his phone once more.

“Yeah, we should be”, he replies. His words mean nothing to Minho. Chan may sound confident, but you can’t spend forty years together with someone and not know when they’re lying.

“I call bullshit”, Minho comments. He’s only teasing, but Chan still gasps as he pretends to take offence at this. Before he can reply, Jeongin speaks up.

“Hey, look! Isn’t that the place we’re going to?”

They all turn to look in the direction he’s pointing, and sure enough. A dark red sign with the word ‘Zimzalabim’ in cursive writing hangs in front, informing them that they’ve reached the shop.

“The sign is actually enchanted“, Chan tells them as they walk closer. “Humans can’t see that it says Zimzalabim, they see it as La Rouge. The real sign is only visible to supernaturals.”

“But I’m a human”, Felix says, frowning in confusion. “And to me, it still says Zimzalabim. Are you sure it’s enchanted?”

“Oh, I know why!” Jisung exclaims. Chan gestures for him to go on with a small smile. “Spells like these can either be soft or fixed. Fixed spells are safer if you’re trying to hide something, and a fixed spell would make the sign hidden from every human. Soft spells aren’t as strict. They sometimes make exceptions for humans who know about the supernatural world, like Lix. The spell realizes that he already knows about the supernatural and lets him see the same thing as a supernatural person, even though he’s human.”

Based on the way Minho is rolling his eyes, Chan thinks he definitely looks like a proud dad right now, but he decides to ignore his boyfriend.

“Good job, Sungie!”

Jisung beams, and then they reach the door.

Chan, who’s been walking at the front of their little group, reaches the door first and holds it up for everyone else to pass through. Everyone stops talking as they enter.

The best way to describe the atmosphere inside is cozy. Even though the sun had been blazing on the street outside, the light isn’t nearly as harsh in here, and it smells vaguely of both popcorn and pinewood. A weird mix, but it works.

Two of the walls are covered by dark red curtains, and there’s no artificial light. It all comes from candles that are placed randomly throughout the room. Some candleholders on the walls, a small chandelier, and a bunch of them on the tables inside the café.

It has some circus vibes, but it’s also very stereotypically witch-like. The two concepts somehow manage not to clash, which is a strange achievement in itself.

“Hi, welcome to Zimzalabim!” a voice says, right before a woman comes out from behind one of the curtains. They see the beginning of the hallway behind it, but then it falls shut again. “My name is Kang Seulgi and I’m the owner of this place. How may I help you?”

The woman smiles at them, and most of them find themselves smiling back, her happiness infectious.

“Hello!” Chan says. “We’d like a table, please. I didn’t know if you could book in advance, so I hope it’s okay that we just showed up.”

“Oh, that’s totally fine!” Seulgi says with another smile, bringing up a notebook seemingly out of nowhere. “You can make reservations, but most people don’t. There aren’t that many supernaturals on the island, so most people come here on their vacation. Lately, there’s also been a lot of lost humans who are just looking for a place to eat, which is why we had to put up the curtains between the café and the magic shop.”

She taps her pen against the notebook twice (where did that pen ever come from?) before looking back up at them.

“Hang on, I’ll be right back. I don’t usually serve customers, so I’m just gonna go get my wife and let her show you to your table”, Seulgi says with a smile.

“Wait, did you just say wife?” Felix asks. The woman stops to look at him a bit suspiciously.

“Yeah… Why? Is that a problem to you?”

Felix furrows his eyebrows before he realizes what she’s getting at.

“Oh, no, I’m not homophobic! Sorry if it sounded like that, I just wasn’t prepared for this real-life LGBTQ representation. It made my bisexual heart very happy”, he says, smiling brightly at Seulgi.

Seungmin stares at him.

“You literally have two gay dads”, he deadpans.

Felix ignores him completely.

-

Seulgi’s wife turns out to be a siren with a smile almost as bright as Seulgi’s, and she introduces herself as Joy. She shows them to a long table by one of the small windows and hands each of them a menu, before leaving to inform the chef that they have customers. It’s all very comfortable.

Hyunjin is the first to open his menu, and he lets out a gasp when he sees the first page. A bit dramatic, but no one had expected anything else.

“Look, they have special warnings for things like salt, honey and garlic”, he says. “That’s so ducky!”

“Back at it again with the 20’s slang, I see”, Seungmin mumbles under his breath. Hyunjin either doesn’t hear him, or he ignores the comment. That’s probably for the best.

Hyunjin is right, though. Each dish is marked with a small warning if it contains salt (which demons can’t eat), garlic (which vampires can’t eat) or honey (which fae can eat, but it gets them drunk the same way alcohol does to a normal human).

“Oh! That’s actually really helpful”, Chan says, nodding as he sees what Hyunjin had been talking about.

“It must be a lot harder to have a supernatural café than a regular one”, Hyunjin comments. “There’s so much more to think about.”

“But if you’re supernatural, it’s probably easier to open up a café for other supernaturals than for humans”, Jisung says thoughtfully, dropping his menu onto the table. “I mean, you can get a lot of things done with magic. I think it would be really nice to work at a place like this, on an island with not a lot of other people around.”

Hyunjin nods.

“Yeah. I like that it’s so close to the water.”

As a siren, that’s not surprising in the slightest. Jisung leans forward over the table and looks at Hyunjin excitedly.

“Hey, you and I could open a magic café on this island! We’d be just like Seulgi and Joy. Except we wouldn’t be married, cause we’re brothers and all that, but still.”

Hyunjin scrunches his nose up at the idea.

“You’re just saying that because Seulgi is a witch, like you, and Joy is a siren, like me.”

“No, no, think about it!” Jisung argues. “There’s a lot of water around, which is great for you, plus you already work at a café back in Seoul! This would barely be any different from that. And I like that there aren’t any people around, and I could practice my magic in peace. It’s a win-win situation.”

Jisung and Hyunjin get lost in their discussion as the rest of the family tries to decide on what food to get, not paying any attention to the two boys at the end of the table. By the time Joy returns to take their orders, everyone has decided except for those two, so they desperately try to read through the menu while everyone else orders.

Once they’re done, Joy collects their menus and returns to the kitchen, leaving them alone once more.

“Jisung”, Chan says, catching the younger’s attention. “You realize that managing a café includes interacting with people, right? Social interaction is a pretty big part of anything within the service industry.”

Jisung stares at him. Clearly, that’s not something he had considered.

He turns back to Hyunjin.

“Okay, so I think you should handle all the customers, and I’ll just work on everything that doesn’t include talking to strangers.”

Hyunjin grins, and they get lost in their conversation again after that.

-

The food at Zimzalabim is great. It’s not long before they’re all finished and ready to head out, thanking both Joy and Seulgi for the great food and complimenting them on their lovely café.

Before leaving, though, Chan takes Jisung and Changbin into the adjoined magic shop that’s hidden behind the curtain. Jisung, because he’s been asking for new spell books, and Changbin, because he’s become very interested in enchanted gemstones lately.

After letting them both pick one thing each and buying it for them, they rejoin the rest of the family on the street outside.

“Got what you wanted?” Minho asks them. Chan nods with a smile. “That’s good. I was thinking we could stop by a grocery store and get some things to cook dinner back in the cabins tonight, if you’re all fine with that.”

“A grocery store? Again?” Changbin asks. “Wasn’t yesterday enough?”

“You don’t have to come if you don’t want to”, Minho says. This is a foolproof method to bring out Changbin’s stubborn side, and it works exactly like he wants it to.

“No, shut up. I’m going.”

Minho smirks, having expected a response like that.

“Well, good! Should we go now or later?”

Chan glances around at all of them and shrugs.

“Might as well get it done. We’ve got no other plans today, anyway.”

-

The good part about returning to the grocery store is that they’ve been there before, and this time, they don’t get lost on the way.

A downside with that is the fact that the kids are a lot more willing to cause chaos. They’ve barely turned onto the street where the grocery store is when Jisung yells out,

“Race you inside!”

He doesn’t direct it at anyone in particular, but Changbin and Hyunjin both take it as a personal challenge and set off after him as soon as the words leave Jisung’s mouth. The youngest has a tiny lead on them, having started running before finishing his sentence, but the other two aren’t far behind.

The rest of them get to the store at a much calmer pace. Minho is pretty sure he can hear them yelling up ahead, but he ignores it. It’s surprisingly easy to pretend that those aren’t his kids.

Once they get inside, they find the trio of chaotic children on the floor right inside the entrance, having collapsed after their rush. All three of them are panting heavily. Despite that, they somehow manage to talk in between breaths, arguing about who got inside first and won the race.

Minho rolls his eyes before helping them up from the floor, while Chan goes to get a shopping cart.

“Okay, kids!” Chan calls. “Only one person gets to sit in the shopping cart, got it?”

“Ooh, can I drive it?” Jeongin asks, bouncing on his heels. Chan nods and pushes the cart toward him, letting Jeongin have it. The vampire then walks up to Minho to ask about what ingredients they need for tonight, and the two parents walk ahead of everyone else into store.

Felix and Jisung look at each other, then at Chan’s retreating back, then at each other again before smiling in a way that would have any responsible adult worried. Lucky for them, no one here is responsible and no one is really surprised when they both climb into the shopping cart despite what Chan just told them.

“Get in losers, we’re going shopping”, Jeongin says as the twins get seated. He grins at them before starting to push. If they’re worried about letting Jeongin control the cart they’re sitting in, they don’t show it.

Meanwhile, Hyunjin decides to abandon his siblings to chase after Minho and Chan, ready to throw himself over whoever seems most likely to give him a piggyback ride. At the moment, that’s Minho. Or maybe Hyunjin just likes a challenge. Either way, Minho is the chosen victim today.

“Minho hyuuuung”, he whines, putting his arms loosely around the older’s neck.

“You wanna be carried?” Minho guesses and Hyunjin smiles. He nods even though Minho can’t see his head from this angle, before lifting his legs and waiting for Minho to take him up onto his back.

Chan turns back to ask the kids what vegetables they want to get for dinner, only to discover that the rest of their kids aren’t anywhere in sight. He wishes he could say this is surprising, but it’s not. They never should have been left alone.

“We’ve been abandoned”, he announces, turning back to face Minho and Hyunjin. They don’t look very surprised by this.

“I bet we’re gonna hear someone scream within the next five minutes”, Minho says. “Don’t worry, we’ll find them soon enough.”

That’s probably true.

The three of them spend a few minutes walking around the store, getting different ingredients for tonight’s dinner, before stopping in the aisle with pasta. While Minho and Hyunjin look through the different kinds, Chan glances around in an attempt to find the rest of the kids, but then he sees something move near the end of the aisle.

“What is it?” Minho asks, noticing the way Chan is staring. Chan blinks.

“I’m pretty sure I just saw Jeongin somersaulting from one side of the aisle to the other”, he says slowly.

Minho only shrugs before going back to the pasta options, not surprised by this. Chan keeps looking in the direction where he just saw Jeongin move, hoping to catch the boy if he does it again.

Instead of seeing them move, he hears their voices as well as the sound of an approaching shopping cart. It’s not coming from the direction Chan is looking, but from behind him. They must have walked around to the other side of the aisle after Jeongin did his little gymnastics trick.

“I look like a Picasso painting.”

That’s definitely Jisung speaking, and Chan briefly wonders what kind of conversation they’re having right now.

“You don’t know how Picasso painted people, do you?”

That’s Felix’s voice.

“Yes, I do!” Jisung sounds defensive. “That’s why I said it. My face looks exactly like something Picasso would have painted.”

When Chan turns around to look, both of them are sitting in the shopping cart and facing each other, even though Chan specifically said that only one person is allowed to sit in the cart today. So much for respecting the oldest.

Jeongin is still pushing the cart and isn’t really paying attention to the two boys sitting in it. He smiles at Chan when he notices the older looking at him, and Chan smiles back at him.

They moment is interrupted by a loud screech.

“Hands off my macaroni!” Hyunjin yells.

While Jisung and Felix had been busy arguing about Picasso, and Jeongin’s pushing the cart, Seungmin walks ahead of them. He stops right next to Hyunjin and Minho over by the shelves with pasta. They seem to have decided to buy macaroni. Hyunjin must have jumped down from Minho’s back, since he’s standing on the floor now and is holding a package of macaroni in his hands. A package that Seungmin is currently trying to poke. Why Seungmin is so insistent on poking it, no one will ever know.

“Seungmin, stop trying to poke the macaroni”, Minho says in the most monotone voice Chan thinks he’s ever heard him use. “Hyunjin, can you get the spaghetti? It’s on the highest shelf.”

Hyunjin completely misses the opportunity to make a height joke and instead turns back to the pasta shelf, still clutching the box of macaroni.

After a quick glance toward where the spaghetti is, Hyunjin leans back against the opposite shelf and does his best imitation of a rich old lady in a black and white movie, even going as far as to twirl his (plastic) choker as if was a fancy pearl necklace. Then, he sighs and says,

”I just can’t do it, babe.”

Minho purses his lips before turning toward Jisung and Felix in the shopping cart.

”Can one of you do it, then?” he asks.

They both turn their heads toward him with slightly raised eyebrows, clearly not having heard the question.

”Do what?” Jisung wonders. Minho resists the urge to roll his eyes.

”Do you want me to ask the question again, or should I whisper it in your ear this time? Would that help you listen better?”

”aYO LIL MAMA, LEMME WHISPER IN YOUR EAR!” Felix immediately yells, and maybe they should have seen that one coming. Jisung grins and high fives him.

Minho simply gestures toward the highest shelf and assumes that they can figure out what he wants. Based on their expressions, they can (apparently telepathy is one of the perks of having lived together for so long. Or, maybe they just share the same dysfunctional brain cells).

Jeongin pushes the cart closer to the shelf so the boys can stand up it and reach the spaghetti. Once the box is safe in Felix’s hands, they sit down again.

”Jake! Everything’s Jake”, Hyunjin comments with a smile. No one bothers trying to understand what he means by that.

”Okay, so now we have the pasta”, Minho says. ”We still need literally everything else. Should we split up? It might be faster that way.”

”We’ll get marshmallows!” Jeongin yells and starts pushing the cart away, almost making Felix and Jisung fall over from the sudden start.

The others don’t get a chance to argue since the trio is already speeding away at a pace that you’re probably not meant to go with a shopping cart. Hopefully, they won’t crash. Minho knows from experience that a warning will do nothing, but Chan still tries.

”Please be careful, and stop it with your shenanigans already!”

”Oh yeah, because they’re definitely gonna listen to that”, Seungmin says in a sarcastic tone. Chan can’t even pretend to be offended, because he’s absolutely correct.

-

They've almost made it to the cash register when Seungmin speaks up again.

"Do you think they sell cans of compressed air in here?"

Chan is the only one who looks weirded out by this. Minho doesn't seem to be listening, while both Hyunjin and Changbin consider the question very seriously.

"I don't think so", Hyunjin eventually replies. "Why?"

"I wanna make a flamethrower with a lighter and a can of compressed air, as you do."

Chan raises his eyebrows and says, in a very confused voice, "No...? I don't.”

"That's too bad." Chan looks even more confused now, but he doesn’t get a chance to ask about it before Seungmin continues. "Oh, look! They're already here."

Seungmin’s last sentence has the rest of them looking up toward the cash register to see that yeah, the three boys with the shopping cart are already there and waiting to pay.

Or, well… Jisung and Felix are waiting. What Jeongin is doing, no one knows for sure, but it looks like he’s backing up to prepare for a flip or something. Chan really hopes that’s not the case, because Jeongin does not know how to do flips and he doesn’t think the hard linoleum floor of the grocery store is the best place to learn.

”He’s gonna do a cartwheel”, Seungmin says, sounding mildly horrified. ”He’s gonna do a cartwheel, I can see it, I can feel it in my soul. He’s gonna do a cartwheel.”

No more than two seconds later, Jeongin actually does a cartwheel. The man behind the cash register where Jisung and Felix are waiting claps his hands at this.

”That wasn’t even a good cartwheel”, Hyunjin comments in an unimpressed tone. Minho hits him on the arm when he says this, and the boy lets out a yelp that has the rest of the boys as well as the cashier turning around to stare at him.

Seungmin smiles and waves, while the others at least have the decency to look a bit sheepish.

”Sorry”, Minho apologizes, not to Hyunjin, but to the cashier for having to deal with this mess.

”Please don’t call the manager, we usually behave better than this”, Changbin adds, and the guy behind the register blinks.

“Uuh, I won’t. I am the manager.”

Hyunjin walks up to Jisung and Felix, and leans over to whisper to them.

“He probably has some heavy sugar.”

Felix, despite not having any idea what that means, nods his head in agreement.

“Really? But you look so young”, Jeongin comments.

“Innie, don’t say that”, Jisung chastises from where he’s still sitting in the shopping cart. “He might be a vampire. Don’t be so blunt about it.”

Chan closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. He’s really glad that most people just assume Jisung is joking when he says things like this, because Jisung has been doing it a lot recently. He might just be testing Chan’s patience, or he genuinely forgets that not everyone knows about the supernatural. Either way, it happens way too often for Chan’s liking.

The cashier blinks at them before speaking next.

“I am way too sleep deprived to deal with this”, he says before starting to ring their items up.

Chan sends Jisung a pointed look, but the younger only grins at him, realizing that he just got away with mentioning supernatural stuff in front of humans. Again.

This family is an absolute mess.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a moment of silence for chan's brain cells… they're not dead, they're just being completely ignored


	4. Insomnia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Jinnie, I'm sorry I tried to sacrifice you to Satan, I promise I won't do it again. Probably."
> 
> "I'm sorry I said that you deserve burn in the ninth circle of hell for the rest of eternity, even though I still think it's true."

“We’ve got marshmallows, it’s only logical that we start a fire!”

Jeongin’s voice can be heard all the way outside the cabin, where everyone else is waiting for him and Chan to join them. Currently, the youngest is trying to convince him that they should start a bonfire at the beach. It’s not going too well.

“Has anyone told Chan hyung that Minho hyung already said yes to the bonfire?” Jisung asks, looking around at the others. They shake their heads.

Minho has left for the beach a bit before everyone else to set things up, and he has already told them that they can have a bonfire tonight. Chan apparently doesn’t know this, which is why he’s trying to tell Jeongin that they’re not going to start a fire.

Boy, is he in for a surprise.

“Can’t we just leave them here?” Changbin asks, glancing impatiently toward the cabin. “I mean, what’s taking them so long?”

Felix shakes his head.

“We can’t leave Jeongin behind. He took the blame when we accidentally got a virus on Chan hyung’s computer, remember? We owe him.”

Changbin blinks.

“Ah, shit. You’re right.”

Jisung and Hyunjin have already gotten up on their bikes and are ready to take off. As they wait for the two people to come out from the cabin, they start hitting each other with their front wheels, which starts a battle and completely takes their minds off what they’re supposed to be doing.

From where he’s standing right next to them, Seungmin rolls his eyes before taking his bike and moving closer to Felix and Changbin. Those two seem less likely of accidentally ramming into him with their bikes, so he feels safer standing closer to them. Hyunjin and Jisung are too chaotic for their own good sometimes.

The two of them are still laughing and yelling when the door to the cabin opens. Chan steps outside first, not seeming surprised at all by the loud noises, but Jeongin glances warily in their direction when he comes out behind Chan.

“Okay, guys, come on! Time to leave”, the oldest calls. Hyunjin pauses right where he’d been in the middle of throwing pebbles at Jisung. How he managed to get the pebbles at the same time as Jisung was trying to ram into him with a bike, no one knows.

“But wait, I haven’t got my glad rags on”, he says. “I need to do that.”

Chan stares at Hyunjin as he lets go of his bike and rushes toward one of the cabins.

“Is he serious right now?” he asks out loud, not directing the question at anyone in particular. “You’ve been waiting here for, like, ten minutes. Why hasn’t he gotten dressed yet?”

“Oh, so that’s what glad rags mean”, Seungmin comments. That word had completely gone over all of their heads, but since it’s Hyunjin, no one bothers to ask what it means. That boy says weird stuff constantly nowadays.

Chan, the only person here who was actually alive in the 1920’s and therefore understands most of the stupid things Hyunjin says, nods.

“Yeah. Glad rags are clothes you wear to go outside.”

“Can we please leave?” Changbin asks, glancing toward the cabin Hyunjin just disappeared into. “Why do we have to wait for Hyunjin?”

Seungmin looks like he’s considering the question very seriously.

“You know what”, he then says, nodding. “You’re right. We don’t owe Hyunjin anything. We could just leave him.”

Surprisingly, it’s Jisung who argues with this.

“No! Don’t be mean to Jinnie.” He sounds oddly protective, considering he was the one chasing Hyunjin with his bike not even a minute ago. “He would for sure get lost on his way to the beach, and I really don’t wanna spend half the night looking for him.”

“You’re been picking fights with him since we got to this island”, Changbin retorts. “I thought you would be excited to get rid of him. This is your chance.”

Jisung frowns.

“But I pick fights with everyone, Jinnie isn’t special. Plus, fighting with someone doesn’t mean I want to get rid of them.”

Changbin pauses.

“Oh. Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

Chan sighs, looking around at his kids. He then turns to them and announces,

“Guys, we’re not going to leave Hyunjin behind. And Jisung, I’m glad you’re sticking up for Hyunjin, but please stop picking fights with people.”

“Bite me”, Jisung replies and glares at Chan. The older gives him an unimpressed look.

“I’m not going to bite you. Stop saying stuff like that, someone might take you seriously.”

Jisung only grins, and Chan has to hold back another sigh. Being a parent is exhausting.

-

“Jisung”, Minho says, giving the younger a pointed look. Jisung sighs.

“Okay, fine”, he relents. Jisung then turns to Hyunjin. “Jinnie, I’m sorry I tried to sacrifice you to Satan, I promise I won’t do it again. Probably.”

Minho rolls his eyes at the last word, before turning to Hyunjin. He raises his eyebrows at the boy and hopes he gets the hint.

“And Hyunjin…” Minho prompts. Hyunjin groans.

“Do I really have to?”

“Yes!” Minho is quick to insist. “Apologize, or you’re not getting any marshmallows. The others already have the fire started.”

That seems to do the trick, because Hyunjin meets Jisung’s eyes and does his best to look as serious as possible.

“Okay, Ji. I’m sorry I said that you deserve burn in the ninth circle of hell for the rest of eternity, even though I still think it’s true.”

Minho is not impressed with either of their apologies, but he lets it slide, because they jump forward to hug each other as soon as Hyunjin is done speaking.

“Aww, thanks!” Jisung says, and that part is just confusing. Hyunjin literally just said that he deserves to burn in hell. “But the ninth circle of hell is made of ice, so I don’t think there would be much burning going on there.”

“It’s the thought that counts”, Hyunjin replies, still with his arms around Jisung. That’s the exact moment Minho decides to give up on trying to understand them and turns to head back to the part of the beach where the rest of the family is. The only reason they had stepped away was so that the two boys could apologize and calm down after one of their playful fights turned a bit too serious. Since that seems to be solved now, Minho can go back.

He returns to the campfire just in time to see Changbin try to hit Seungmin with a shoe.

“Stop throwing shoes”, he scolds as he sits down, barely sparing the two boys a glance. He’s much more used to this than he’d like to admit.

“He started it!” Changbin argues. Based on Seungmin’s grin, that’s true. Minho briefly wonders why Chan didn’t interrupt them earlier, but then he sees Chan on the other side of the fire with a handful of Jeongin and Felix. Ah, that explains it. They don’t have enough responsible adults in this family to deal with all the chaos at the same time.

“Stop fighting, or I’m calling Seungcheol hyung and asking him to adopt you both.”

Seungcheol is one of the doctors that works with him at the hospital, and is known for adopting pretty much any underage witch he comes across, much like Chan is with supernaturals in general.

They both know that Minho’s threats are empty words, but Changbin actually perks up at this and considers it a bit too seriously.

“But wait, I thought he only adopted witches?” he questions.

Minho wants nothing more than to hit him with one of the sticks they’re gathered to roast the marshmallows. Sadly, that would be bad parenting, and he made an oath with Chan to always do his best to be a good parent. That was shortly after they adopted Jisung. He wonders if Chan would still hold him to that oath. After all, it was quite a while ago.

“I’m sure Seungcheol would make an exception for you”, Seungmin says, and Minho isn’t sure what to make of that. It would sound like a compliment, but from the way Seungmin says it, it sounds more like he can’t wait to get rid of Changbin.

Changbin frowns.

“I can’t tell if that’s an insult or not”, he says. Minho silently agrees.

“Don’t worry about it.” Seungmin smiles. Ah, so it was an insult. He never smiles like that unless he’s insulting someone.

“Minho!” Chan’s voice interrupts them from the other side of the campfire, and Minho looks over at him to see that he’s now holding Jeongin down. Or… something. It’s hard to figure out what’s going on, but Jeongin is on Chan’s lap and Chan has his arms around him to stop the boy from moving around, so it looks like he’s being held down.

“Yeah?” Minho replies.

“Can you please tell Innie that he can’t use his wings here? He won’t listen to me.”

Well, that explains why Chan is holding him down right now. Minho glances at Jeongin and sees that he’s pouting.

“Aw, baby! Don’t be sad. You can use your wings later, when Channie isn’t around to see it.”

Minho winks at Jeongin, who immediately brightens up. Chan sends Minho a look of utter betrayal, but Minho only winks again.

While they’re busy with that, Jisung and Hyunjin return to the circle. Jisung has the spell book that he got earlier today at the witch shop, and he opens it as he takes a seat next to Changbin.

“Are you studying?” Seungmin asks in a teasing tone.

It’s a well-known fact that Jisung rarely studies, especially not if it’s something theoretical. Considering they’re in a public place where they could easily be spotted by humans, he probably shouldn’t practice any spells.

Jisung flips him off.

“Understandable, have a nice day”, Felix comments with a grin. He’s been watching the interaction from where he’s still clinging to Chan’s right arm. Compared to Jeongin, Felix actually looks content being stuck to Chan like this. Or maybe Chan is the one who’s stuck to him. Felix doesn’t look like he’s about to let go anytime soon.

“Jisung, what are you reading?” Chan asks. He actually sounds curious to hear the answer.

Jisung glances up.

“I wanna learn an illusion spell. You know, like the one they had at Zimzalabim, to hide the sign from normal humans. Something like that.”

Chan nods, making an ‘ah’ noise in understanding. Jisung is still turning pages, searching for the type of spell he wants.

“Just remember that you shouldn’t test it out here”, Chan reminds him, but his words fall on deaf ears. There’s no way Jisung is actually listening to his warning. “We’re in a public place. A human could walk up to us at any time, you don’t wanna expose us by accident.”

“But Chan”, Felix says, conveniently forgetting all about honorifics. “An illusion spell is the perfect thing to practice in public! If it works, humans won’t even see it!”

“I found an invisibility spell!” Jisung exclaims before Chan has time to respond, and that gets him everyone’s attention. Most of them lean forward curiously, but Chan wants nothing more than to take the book away from Jisung.

“Try it!” Jeongin says.

Jisung looks around and sees the pile of sticks they gathered earlier. He points to it.

“Can I borrow one?”

No one answers, but Hyunjin picks one up and hands it to him. All the kids seem very curious about what’s going to happen, and they’re way more focused than they normally are. Everyone watches Jisung as he looks at the spell’s instructions.

“It doesn’t look too complicated”, he says and turns his attention to the stick. Chan is just about to suggest that he waits until later to try the spell when Jisung holds out a hand toward the stick, and suddenly, it’s gone.

Chan has to let go of Jeongin to cover his ears as everyone starts yelling. Jeongin takes the opportunity to jump out of his lap and move to the other side of the campfire, his wide eyes set on Jisung and the invisible stick.

“Woah”, Felix breathes. His eyes are almost as wide as Jeongin’s.

Hyunjin and Changbin both reach out at the same time to grab the stick, and their hands close around it. It looks like they’re holding air, but based on the expressions on their faces, the stick is actually there. Just invisible.

Jisung beams and turns to Chan, his eyes twinkling.

“Did you see that, hyung?”

He sounds very proud of himself.

“Yeah, I did.” Chan nods and sends him a smile. “Good job, Sung!”

Jisung looks back down at the spell book.

“What if I make the spell bigger and pull it over myself, though? Like a blanket?” he asks.

Chan can only blink.

“…what?”

The next time he blinks, Jisung is gone. Everyone starts yelling once again.

“JISUNG!” he yells, standing up. “Fuck…”

Not even a second later, seven voices shout out in unison,

“Language!”

Chan tries to glare at all of them at once, but Jisung is still invisible and it doesn’t really have any effect on them, anyway. He looks about as threatening as a rubber duck.

“Jisung!” he calls again.

Among the many voices speaking, he manages to pick out Jisung’s giggles and has to force himself not to slump in relief. Who knows what could have happened? This is exactly why you don’t practice magic in public.

Chan sighs.

“Jisung, are you really invisible right now?”

Jisung doesn’t get a chance to respond. Hyunjin and Changbin, the same people who had grabbed the stick earlier, seem to have decided that the best way to test invisibility is by throwing themselves at the invisible object to make sure it’s still there.

Sadly for Jisung, he is the invisible object this time. He gets two bodies throwing themselves on top of him no less than a second after Chan has asked his question.

They all hear Jisung grunt at the impact. Hyunjin’s and Changbin’s bodies don’t touch the ground, and it almost looks like they’re levitating. That’s enough proof to conclude that yes, Jisung really is invisible right now, being crushed by his two brothers.

“Get off!” Jisung wheezes.

“No!” Hyunjin yells. “Not until you become visible again!”

Chan looks around. They’re in a pretty secluded corner of the beach right now, but anyone could still see them. It’s pretty much the middle of the night, so not a lot of people are out, but he hates the risk they’re taking by doing stuff like this in public.

“Okay guys!” he calls. “Get up from the ground, please. Jisungie, do you know how to make yourself visible again?”

Reversing a spell isn’t always as easy. He really hopes Jisung can figure it out, or they’re about to have an even bigger problem on their hands. Lucky for him, Jisung is quick to respond.

“Yeah. It takes energy to keep it up, so I think if I…” he trails off, and before anyone has the chance to ask what he’s doing, he’s visible again.

Jisung looks up at them.

“Am I visible now?” he asks.

Felix responds by letting go of Chan’s arm and throwing himself into Jisung’s lap. Great. Another disaster was just skillfully avoided.

Despite Jisung being visible again, Chan still looks a bit worried, Minho even more so.

“You know what learning a new spell means, right?” Minho asks. Jisung pouts.

“But I feel fine!” he protests. “I’m not even tired.”

Minho scoffs.

“Sure you aren’t. You know that learning new magic depletes your energy. Honestly, it will be a miracle if you’re not sick tomorrow.”

“We should go somewhere and buy food”, Chan suggests. “You need to eat, or you’re gonna crash.”

“Ooh!” Jeongin jumps up. “Isn’t there a McDonald’s nearby? I want ice cream.”

“I want nuggets!” Hyunjin says, and that starts a whole mess of children yelling out what they want. Some of them don’t even seem like they actually want anything, they’re just repeating other people’s suggestions for the sake of contributing to the chaos.

Minho waits until everyone is quiet again before he speaks.

“Honestly, I wasn’t listening to any of the things you just said”, he says, “but if you have money, you can all buy something. We can go to McDonald’s if you want.”

The kids cheer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> woah i just realized how much hyunsung there is in this story. lmao and there's gonna be even more


	5. M.I.A

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Have you ever seen the president in daylight?" Changbin asks. When Seungmin opens his mouth, probably to say yes, he continues. "That's right, you haven't! And if you have, how do you know that they didn't hire a lookalike just to throw off suspicion?"
> 
> "Because that's ridiculous", Jeongin says and scrunches up his nose. "You sound ridiculous."
> 
> "You sound like a conspiracy theorist on Reddit, or something", Seungmin adds.

Biking around through an unfamiliar town in the middle of the night is surprisingly nice, Minho comes to realize. Some of the kids probably need to study bike safety a bit more, but none of them do anything extremely dangerous.

Jisung had decided to leave his bike at the beach and is sitting behind Felix on his bike, which means Felix is being extra careful. Seungmin is an exemplary child, as he is most of the time. At least in public. Not so much when it’s just them, but that’s another conversation.

The real mess is Changbin, Hyunjin and Jeongin. Those three are being chaotic as ever, biking across the streets and chasing each other in circles every time they get ahead of the rest of the family.

Chan has told them to be careful, and Minho thinks they’re trying their best to be. They’re not injured yet, so he would count it as a success.

McDonald’s is located at the top of a hill, which some of them whine about. When Minho says that they’re free to get off their bike and walk the rest of the way, they all yell in protest, so he thinks the whining is more out of obligation than actual displeasure.

Yeah, that’s just what his kids are like. They have to complain out of sheer principle.

“I don’t trust everyone to go inside”, Chan tells Minho as they bike a bit behind everyone else, to make sure that no one is left behind. “If you guys grab a table, I can go inside and order for everyone.”

“That’s probably for the best”, Minho agrees.

Considering the time is past 11 p.m, he’s a bit surprised by how much energy all the kids have, but it shouldn’t be surprising. This is what they’re always like. That’s exactly why it’s better if Chan goes inside alone to order, so they don’t terrify anyone who works there. Minho still feels bad for the cashier at the grocery store they visited before.

They get to McDonald’s pretty fast. Like planned, Chan goes inside to order while everyone else gets a table outside.

Changbin, Hyunjin and Jeongin are arguing about something, but Minho is struggling to figure out what it is about.

“I’ve seen what Chan hyung looked like as a baby”, Changbin says, and Hyunjin frowns.

“How could you have? The camera wasn’t that common in the 19th century, you dewdropper.”

Changbin either ignores the insult, or doesn’t understand what it means. Probably the latter.

“Yeah, but still. I’m telling you, I know what Chan hyung looked like as a kid.”

Jeongin glances between them hesitantly.

“But that still doesn’t mean you’re right about this”, he comments. Minho frowns as he follows the conversation.

“If you don’t know what hyung looked like back then, you can’t say I’m wrong, either!” Changbin argues.

On the other side of the table, Felix and Seungmin are conversing calmly while Jisung is pretty much asleep on Felix’s shoulder. They look like they’re having a much more sensible conversation than the three boys on this side, but sadly, Minho is stuck trying to figure out what the heck these kids talking about.

“Pitbull isn’t an accurate comparison, though”, Hyunjin says. Now Minho is completely lost.

“What are you talking about?” he decides to ask. He has a sneaking suspicion that he’s going to regret it, but oh well.

“Changbin hyung is trying to tell us that Chan hyung looked like Pitbull when he was a baby”, Jeongin replies. He makes it sound like this is a completely normal conversation, not weird at all.

Minho nods slowly.

“Okay, got it. Makes total sense.”

“Pitbull?” Chan’s voice reaches them, and when they turn around, they see him approaching the table with two trays with food.

“Yeah!” Hyunjin says. “Changbin hyung thinks you looked like him when you were a child.”

“Oh, yeah. Pitbull is my great-nephew”, Chan says casually.

He places the trays down on the table, and the kids jump over them immediately. Minho almost thinks they missed his answer before Changbin exclaims triumphantly.

“I told you so!”

Minho glares at Chan, but the older only smiles back at him. He’s definitely not related to Pitbull, but for some reason, none of the kids question his statement.

Jisung perks up when he sees the food. Apparently, he also heard what Chan said about Pitbull, and he tries to call bullshit on it, but he’s so tired that he doesn’t manage to make his voice sound sarcastic enough when he responds.

“Oh, yeah, of course he is. And I’m cousins with Chuu.”

It’s obviously a joke, but no one except Minho picks up on that.

“The famous singer?” Felix wonders as he reaches for the chicken nuggets. Jisung’s voice is too tired for anyone to hear that he’s joking, and Jisung only nods in response to Felix’s question. He doesn’t bother telling them it’s not true.

Minho rolls his eyes, both at Jisung and Chan. Maybe a bit more at Chan, because his energy isn’t depleted right now and he doesn’t have a valid reason for tricking his kids that he’s related to Pitbull.

Oh well. Like father, like son, he supposes.

-

“I’m just going across the street to buy some tea, I’ll be right back”, Chan says a while later. Minho doesn’t have the chance to object before Chan stands up, kisses his cheek and disappears.

The rest of the boys don’t even seem to notice. They’re all way too deep into a debate about whether or not it’s possible that the president is a vampire. Changbin and Felix both seem to think it’s possible, while Seungmin and Jeongin are trying to argue against them. Hyunjin switches side literally every other second.

Jisung looks like he’s asleep over Seungmin’s lap, and Minho can see the werewolf petting his hair. He would never do it if Jisung was awake. It’s too great blackmail material, considering he pretends not to care about them a majority of the time.

“Have you ever seen the president in daylight?” Changbin asks. When Seungmin opens his mouth, probably to say yes, he continues. “That’s right, you haven’t! And if you have, how do you know that they didn’t hire a lookalike just to throw off suspicion?”

“Because that’s ridiculous”, Jeongin says and scrunches up his nose. “You sound ridiculous.”

“You sound like a conspiracy theorist on Reddit, or something”, Seungmin adds. Hyunjin, who’s currently on their side, nods in agreement.

“But it’s possible that he has a sun charm, just like Chan hyung”, Felix says. At least his arguments make more sense than Changbin’s.

Hyunjin looks like he’s about half a second away from switching side again.

“That’s right!” Changbin is quick to jump on Felix’s logical argument. “And maybe he keeps his victims in the Blue house’s basement!”

“I don’t think the Blue house has a basement”, Jeongin comments. That is the exact moment their conversation derails.

“I think it does!” Hyunjin says. “Where else would they hide everything?”

Seungmin frowns at him.

“Hide everything?” he repeats. “What exactly do you think they’re hiding?”

“Don’t answer that”, Minho jumps into the conversation. He really doesn’t need to hear any more of this. “They’re not hiding anything there, okay? Please stop it with your conspiracy theories, or at least make some realistic ones.”

Minho is really glad when he sees Chan making his way back toward them, crossing the street with a cup in his hand. That must be the tea he went to buy.

“Chan hyungie!” Felix calls out with a bright smile. Considering he didn’t even notice when Chan disappeared, Minho is surprised by how happy he is to see the vampire.

“Lixie!” Chan yells back with just as much excitement.

They’re both way too happy to see each other. Chan wasn’t gone more than three minutes, and Felix didn’t even notice when he left, so it makes absolutely no sense.

But like father, like son. Again.

Chan takes a seat next to Minho, putting his arm around the younger as he sips from the tea in his cup. It’s kind of cold out. They should have expected that, considering it is past midnight by now, but it’s not like they planned to stay out this late.

Without saying anything, Chan passes the cup to Minho, who also takes a sip from it. It’s warm.

“Should I have gotten some for Jisung?” Chan asks, glancing at the boy in question. He still has his head in Seungmin’s lap and doesn’t look like he’s aware of much.

“No, let him sleep”, Minho says as he hands the tea back to Chan. “I don’t think he’s cold, Seungmin has that covered.”

Seungmin would never admit it, but he really does.

Chan hands the cup of tea to Minho again, and they end up passing it back and forth between each other until it’s empty. The kids are still discussing the Blue house and the vampiric tendencies of the president.

Minho leans his head on Chan’s shoulder and mumbles something unintelligible.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” Chan asks with a small smile.

“Yay, pillow”, Minho repeats, sounding a bit dazed. That has Chan frowning. He tries to turn his head to get a better look at Minho, but their current position makes that a bit complicated.

“Are you okay?”

He tries to feel Minho’s forehead. Maybe he’s getting sick or something.

“No, I’m Minho”, Minho mumbles.

He sounds too serious to be joking, and that makes Chan even more worried. Something feels off. Was there something in the tea he bought?

The kids, who have turned their attention to the couple, they all laugh, but Chan’s eyes widen. He glances at the empty cup on the table in front of them.

“Uuh, Minho”, Chan says, voice laced with guilt. “I think I may have accidentally got you drunk. There was honey in the tea I bought.”

“Honey is like alcohol to fae!” Felix says, proud of himself for remembering this fact. Then, he frowns. “Wait. Why did you give honey to Minho hyung, then?”

Chan bites his lip.

“It was an accident.”

Minho is humming a soft melody under his breath and doesn’t pay attention to the rest of them. Chan glances at him.

“Sorry, babe”, he whispers and pats his head, as if he was a cat. “I didn’t mean to. I’m just dumb and forgetful sometimes, I’m sorry about that.”

“Same”, Jisung says from Seungmin’s lap. He sounds like he just woke up, and considering he was asleep only a few moments earlier, that’s probably accurate.

“Go back to sleep”, Chan tells him before turning to everyone else. He speaks in a soft voice, trying not to bother Minho, who’s falling asleep on his shoulder. “Okay guys, we should start getting back to the cabins now. Lix, are you taking Sungie on your bike again?”

“I’ll do it”, Seungmin volunteers.

“Great. And Innie, do you think you could sleep in one of the other cabins tonight?” Chan turns to the youngest boy. “Minho might need your bed.”

“Yeah, sure!” Jeongin agrees a bit too quickly for Chan’s liking. He smiles brightly. “I can take Minho hyung’s bed.”

“Are you sure you wanna share a room with Changbin hyung and Seungmin, though?” Hyunjin asks in a teasing tone.

Jeongin glances at the two mentioned boys and pretends to gasp.

“Oh no, you’re right! I might get murdered in my sleep. I’m not sure I feel safe in there…”

“I wanna sleep with Seungminnie and Binnie hyung!” Felix says.

This is not what Chan had imagined when he asked Jeongin to switch cabins for the night. They only need to make one change, there’s no need for them to start making completely new sleeping arrangements.

Jeongin frowns.

“But then I’ll have to share a room with Sungie hyung and Hyunjin hyung”, he says.

“Jisung is pretty much dead, so that’s not a problem”, Hyunjin says. “And I’m lovely! You’re gonna have a great time, trust me.”

Before Jeongin has the chance to argue more, Chan speaks up.

“Okay, let’s get going. Back to the bikes, come on. Get up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pls tell me someone got the pitbull and the chuu references because those memes were funny and i still can't believe stays actually believed those things


	6. Voices

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Hi", Minho says with a smile. "How are you feeling?"
> 
> "I have a cough", Jisung answers in a hoarse voice. "But I only cough when I breathe, so I have decided that I'm simply not going to breathe anymore."

Unsurprisingly, Jisung wakes up the following day with a fever and runny nose. Hyunjin, who’s been clinging to him the entire night, isn’t much better off.

He whines that he’s dying and that his skin is super itchy, and that’s when Jeongin decides to take off. He can’t believe Felix managed to convince him to sleep with these two idiots.

Well, he does share a room with Jisung at home, too, but that’s different. That doesn’t count.

Jeongin leaves the cabin and walks across the grass to where Chan and Minho are sleeping. He doesn’t knock before opening the door, opting to walk straight inside with no warning. If they’re naked, it’s their own faults for not locking the door.

“Jisung hyung and Hyunjin hyung are dying”, he comments casually, walking toward Chan’s open suitcase to steal one of his hoodies.

Chan, who’s sitting up on his bed on the other side of the room, is too focused on his statement to notice the ongoing theft.

“I’m sorry, they’re what?” he asks and stands up. “Are they okay? Where are they right now?”

“They’re still in the cabin. Sungie hyung probably infested Jinnie hyung with the plague or something during the night. I mean, they slept in the same bed.”

Chan lets out a slow breath.

“They knew Jisung was getting sick, why would they do that?” he asks out loud, mostly speaking to himself. “That was dumb. Do you know if either of them have a fever?”

Jeongin shrugs and picks out the nicest hoodie Chan has. It’s grey with big, black letters over the front. Jeongin isn’t sure what it says, because the words are in English, but the hoodie is very comfortable. Him and the others always fight about who’s going to steal it. He’s pretty sure all of them have worn it more than Chan has, even though it was a gift to him from Minho a few years ago.

“Sungie hyung has a fever”, Jeongin replies. “Honestly, I don’t know what’s wrong with Hyunjin hyung. He said his skin is itchy. I don’t think he has a fever, but I don’t know.”

Chan frowns.

“That sounds like he could be dehydrated. Do you know if he’s been in water lately?”

Jeongin shrugs before shaking his head.

“I have no idea.”

“Well, thanks for telling me. I’ll check on them in a minute.”

As Jeongin leaves the cabin, Chan turns to look at Minho, who’s still asleep on the other bed in the cabin. He might have a hangover. There wasn’t a lot of honey in the tea yesterday, but he also didn’t drink any water after.

Considering Minho is a doctor, it would probably be best to wake him up and ask him to check up on the two sick kids. His diagnosis would be more accurate, and he’ll know more about what to do.

-

Minho seems to be feeling pretty well when he wakes up, all things considered. The only problem is that he doesn’t remember anything after Chan brought him the tea yesterday, but it’s not like a lot happened after that. Chan brings him up to speed, before telling him about the two kids that currently need his attention.

Minho rolls his eyes when he hears about that.

“Of course they do”, he comments, moving to get up from the bed.

Chan follows him out of the room and toward the other cabin, the one where Jisung, Hyunjin and Jeongin slept tonight.

They enter the room to find that it’s completely dark inside.

“Hey hyung!” Hyunjin says, his voice surprisingly bright considering he’s covered from head to toe in a blanket. “Do you feel better today?”

Minho looks over at him.

“Yeah. I don’t remember yesterday, but I don’t have a hangover.”

“Oh, that’s okay! I have videos”, Hyunjin tells him. Before Minho has the chance to respond, he continues. “I’ll send them to you! For some reason, you started thinking you could talk to animals last night. Or, more specifically, squirrels.”

“Oh.” Minho blinks. “I don’t remember that.”

“It’s okay, I’m sending you the videos right now!”

Hyunjin’s grin is way too smug for someone who is allegedly sick right now.

“The video is just you talking to Jisung hyung”, Jeongin chimes in from where he’s sitting on the upper bunk. Chan hadn’t even noticed him. “Apparently, drunk you thinks that he’s a real squirrel.”

Minho squints at Hyunjin.

“You don’t seem too sick”, he comments. As Hyunjin starts protesting and saying that he actually feels like shit, Minho turns to the other person on the bed, who’s laying right next to Hyunjin. His entire body is under the blanket, but it’s not hard to guess who it is. “I guess I’ll start with Sungie, since he hasn’t offended me yet.”

“Yet”, Chan echoes.

Minho ignores his boyfriend and walks up to the bed, carefully sitting down at the edge of it. He reaches forward to tug the blanket down and reveal Jisung’s head, and sees that the boy is already awake.

“Hi”, Minho says with a smile. Jisung tries to wave at him, but his hand is under the blanket, so it doesn’t work that well. “How are you feeling?”

“I have a cough”, Jisung says in a hoarse voice. “But I only cough when I breathe, so I have decided that I’m simply not going to breathe anymore.”

“Now, that sounds like a stupid idea, and I think you’ve had enough of those. At least until you’re not sick anymore.”

Minho might have a point there.

Jisung allows himself to be manhandled into a sitting position so that Minho can look him over. Chan has already managed to find a thermometer, but Minho can tell just from feeling Jisung’s forehead that the boy definitely has a fever.

“See, this is why you shouldn’t practice invisibility spells without preparing first”, Chan comments as he hands the thermometer to Minho.

Minho doesn’t say anything, but it looks like he agrees.

“I can stop by Zimzalabim and get some herbs”, he says instead. As a fae, he’s better at plant-based remedies than magic-based ones, even though there is a little bit of magic in everything that lives, plants included. “I can make some medicine for you, but you’re still gonna rest today. No more adventures or dumb ideas. Got it?”

Jisung nods.

Minho seems satisfied with this, and moves on to examine Hyunjin.

“And what seems to be the problem with you, young sir?” he asks.

Hyunjin’s face is still the only visible part of him, but a few strands of blond hair are sticking out from under the blanket.

“Itchy”, Hyunjin responds.

“That’s not a very detailed description. What kind of itchy? Where? For how long?”

“I dunno, everywhere. My head also hurts. Oh, and it feels weird to breathe!”

He sounds way too excited considering the situation, and Minho briefly wonders if he’s suffering from lack of oxygen. He did mention that his breathing feels weird. Maybe the lack of oxygen is starting to affect his brain.

Minho doesn’t bother with the thermometer this time.

“When was the last time you were in water?” he asks.

Hyunjin frowns.

“Uh… I showered yesterday.”

“Yeah, but that water isn’t salty, and you’re a saltwater siren. When’s the last time you got saltwater? Or even brackish water?”

After five seconds of Hyunjin thinking about the question deeply, but being unable to come up with an answer, Minho sighs.

“That’s the problem, then. You’re dehydrated. The water around the island is salt, so one of us could go down and bring back a few buckets of saltwater for you.”

“Why can’t I just jump in and swim?” Hyunjin wonders. He sounds genuinely confused about this.

Minho moves to stand up from the bed as he replies.

“It’s the same thing that happens with starvation, or normal dehydration. You can’t drink a liter of water after not drinking anything, or your body won’t be able to deal with it. It’s the same with your saltwater dehydration. You need to start slow.”

“In other words,” Chan jumps in, “that means both you and Jisung are on bedrest today.”

Jeongin laughs at them from his spot on the other bed.

-

“Felix just tried to throw an egg at me!” Changbin shrieks.

Chan sighs. He glances back over his shoulder, seeing the outraged expression on Changbin’s face and the way Felix has dissolved into giggles in the middle of the street.

“How could he have?” Minho asks, not even bothering to look up from his phone. He’s in charge of the map this time, as they’re on their way to get breakfast at Zimzalabim again. “Where would Lix even get an egg from?”

“And why would he throw it at you?” Chan adds.

Felix laughs again, louder this time, which is mildly suspicious.

“Why does Felix do anything?” Changbin counters, and oh damn, that’s a pretty good argument. It’s not like Felix would need a valid reason to throw an egg at someone.

Chan turns to squint at Felix, trying to decide whether or not he should believe Changbin. The boy is still laughing. That could mean literally anything. It’s just an egg, and as random as it is, it’s not like an egg could cause anything bad to happen, so Chan decides that ignoring it is probably his best option.

They continue up the street toward the café. Felix doesn’t throw any more eggs, and Changbin doesn’t shriek again, so Chan will consider the trip a success. Not that that’s a very high standard. It’s literally the bare minimum, but with this family, that’s a big deal.

“I see the store!” Jeongin yells after a few minutes. He starts running toward it, Felix and Changbin follow close behind him as they hurry to get there first. Seungmin is the only one of the kids who walks there calmly. Gold star for him.

This time, it’s Joy who welcomes them when they step inside. She smiles brightly at them before showing them to a table, and all in all, the experience isn’t too chaotic. Jeongin spills water all over the table at one point, but that’s the only thing.

Breakfast today is a success.

-

“Ohmygod, I’ve always wanted to be a giraffe!” Jeongin yells, and then he runs off.

“Innie!” Chan shouts. He turns to run after the boy.

They’ve just left breakfast at Zimzalabim and are currently strolling through town, getting some exploring in before they’re set to return home later this afternoon. The kids have been surprisingly calm this morning. It only makes sense that something weird would happen.

“Wait, what?” Felix questions, watching as both Jeongin and Chan disappear down one of the smaller cobblestone roads. The rest of them have stopped to watch as the two run away from the main road. “Where’s Innie going? What’s he talking about?”

Seungmin shrugs, not looking worried about it in the slightest.

“Giraffes, I assume”, he replies. “How more specific does he need to be?”

Felix frowns.

“I don’t see any giraffes though?”

Minho walks up to next to them and looks at the road where Jeongin and Chan just disappeared. There’s no sight of them now. He sighs.

“Honestly, I don’t even wanna know what that’s about”, Minho says. Seungmin seems to agree with this, but both Felix and Changbin are looking a bit worried.

“But that sounds like the beginning of trouble”, Changbin comments, glancing at Minho. “Innie doesn’t usually run off like that unless it’s to cause trouble.”

Minho nods.

“And that’s exactly why I don’t wanna get involved in it.”

Ah, that makes sense. Besides, Chan is already dealing with it, considering he took off running after Jeongin. He’s probably caught up to him by now.

“So…” Felix starts. “Do we just wait for them here? Or should we keep going?”

“I’ll text Chan where we are”, Minho says. “They can come and find us one they’ve figured out the giraffe thing, whatever that is. Come on, kids! Let’s go!”

-

“Innie!”

Jeongin can hear Chan’s footsteps behind him and slows down, even though he knows that Chan is very fast and definitely would have caught up to him even if he kept running at full speed. He turns around to face the older with a bright smile.

“Chan hyung!” he says, feigning surprise. “You’re here too?”

Chan gives him an exasperated look.

“Innie”, he starts, then he frowns. “Why did you just run off? And why are you suddenly talking about giraffes? What’s going on?”

Jeongin has the audacity to shrug at this.

“I dunno, I just wanted to see the giraffes.”

“What giraffes?”

Chan both looks and sounds completely confused, which isn’t surprising, considering Jeongin is making no sense at all right now.

“The giraffes, hyung. Didn’t you see the announcement board we just passed?”

Chan has to admit, he did not see the announcement board that Jeongin is talking about. He shakes his head, and the younger pretends to gasp.

“Oh, okay, so I saw this sign and there was a picture of a giraffe on it! And it said something about a yard sale!”

That does not clear things up.

“So…” Chan starts. “You decided to run off because you wanted to go to a yard sale, because you saw a cute giraffe on the board where they were announcing the yard sale?”

Jeongin nods.

“And you didn’t think that maybe asking someone if you could go there would be a better option than to just run off with no explanation?”

Jeongin pauses, then shakes his head.

“Okay, I see. Next time, try telling us about what you want to do, okay?”

Jeongin smiles widely at him.

“Of course, hyung!” he says, then glances behind Chan. “But, uhh… Should we maybe tell the others where we are?”

Chan finally seems to realize that the rest of the family isn’t here with them right now, and he looks around.

“That’s probably a good idea, yeah. I’ll text Minho right now. Do you know where the yard sale is, so I can tell them to meet us there?”

Jeongin gives him a street name, and Chan texts Minho about it. Maybe not the best way to make plans, but it works out, because Minho replies only a few moments later and says that they’re on their way right now.

It’s chaotic, but what else did you expect?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEY I HAVE A SUMMARY FOR 'HELLO STRANGER' NOW (haven't posted it yet bc i still need to write the ending lmao): 
> 
> _In the future, Chan and Minho are going to adopt six supernatural kids and live happily together for the rest of their lives._
> 
> _Right now, though, Chan really just wants to stop thinking about the man who literally crashed into him at the roller skate rink. That same man who also checked him out, called him hot, winked, and then disappeared._
> 
> _What the actual fuck._


	7. My pace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Do what?” Hyunjin wonders.
> 
> The mischievous twinkle in Changbin’s eyes is very worrying to Chan, who’s watching this entire thing happen in silence. Maybe he should intervene.
> 
> “A body switching spell!”

There are only three things in life that truly matter: Family, friendship and perfectly crafted insults. The subtler they are, the better, but sometimes it’s best to just say exactly what you mean for it to have maximal impact.

“Dear Changbin,” Seungmin says, interrupting the older boy in the middle of his rambles. Changbin looks up at him and waits for Seungmin to go on. “I wish I could tell you that I care. Sadly, I do not. The president isn’t a vampire, and I don’t want to hear your reasons why you think he is. Please shut up.”

Changbin glares at him in a way that’s probably meant to be threatening, but Seungmin only smiles back at him.

“I would murder you if I knew how to get away with it”, Changbin says. He sounds way too serious, but Seungmin laughs.

“You don’t know how to get away with murder? Lame.”

Changbin glares even harder at this.

“Look, I’m not sure, but when Jisung told me that pouring yogurt into a dead person’s anus would make it harder to identify the body, I’m pretty sure he was lying. Otherwise I would have done it a long time ago.”

Seungmin laughs more, even as Hyunjin turns around to look at them with a disturbed expression on his face.

It’s the late afternoon now, and they’re waiting to get on the boat home. Hyunjin and Jisung are under extra parental supervision for being sick, which is kind of unnecessary considering how tired they both seem, but you really shouldn’t underestimate any of these kids. Fatigue has never stopped them before.

“Please shut your yap, Seo Changbin!” Hyunjin says. “I did not need to hear that.”

“Yap means mouth”, Chan translates from the seat on Hyunjin’s other side. “And I agree with him. Can both of you please stop saying such disturbing things?”

Seungmin widens his eyes.

“I didn’t even say anything disturbing!”

“Maybe not today”, Chan admits. “But that doesn’t mean you’re innocent.”

He’s got a point there.

Changbin turns to Felix instead and continues his in-depth explanation about how the president could be a vampire. Poor Felix has no idea what’s going on, but he’s too polite to interrupt Changbin, so he sends Chan a panicked look before nodding along to the other boy’s words, pretending that he understands.

Seungmin goes over to bother Jeongin, who’s currently playing games on his phone. The two of them immediately start bickering with each other, but it doesn’t seem to be anything serious, so Chan turns his attention to the last two kids.

Jisung is passed out across one of the benches, curled up with his head on Minho’s lap while the older does something on his phone. His other hand is in Jisung’s hair, playing with it gently.

Hyunjin has a Tamagotchi.

“Hang on”, Chan says and frowns. “Since when do you have a Tamagotchi?”

Hyunjin grins at him.

“I got it at the yard sale this morning!”

“Wait, what yard sale? You went to a yard sale?!”

“No, I didn’t.”

“You just said you did.”

“Bold of you to assume that I remember what I just said.”

Hyunjin turns back to his Tamagotchi, and Chan looks over at Minho. His boyfriend shrugs helplessly at him, having overheard the conversation but not knowing anything about where Hyunjin might have gotten the game from.

Jisung and Hyunjin had been alone in the cabin all morning, so no one else has any idea what they did during that time. It’s fully possible that they sneaked out to go to a yard sale. However, that would have been pretty stupid, considering both of them are sick and had clearly been instructed to stay back so they could rest.

Chan doesn’t get a chance to question Hyunjin any further. Jeongin and Seungmin seem to have stopped bickering, and are instead discussing what they’re going to do once they get home.

“I’m gonna ask Sungie hyung if he can put an invisibility spell on me!”

Jeongin’s eyes are sparkling as he speaks. Chan has absolutely no idea why Jeongin would need to be invisible, but he doesn’t really want to know all the things his youngest is planning to do if he gets to try it. Chan almost shudders as he imagines it.

“I looked through the spell book that Sungie got at Zimzalabim earlier”, Seungmin says. “I found a bunch of interesting spells I think he should try. One of them was a body switching spell!”

“That sounds complicated.” Jeongin frowns. “Do you think he could pull it off? I wanna try living in somebody else’s body for a day, but I don’t wanna risk dying in the process, or something.”

Seungmin shrugs.

“Maybe. But the spell needed both a witch and a demon to combine their magic, and I have no faith at all in Binnie hyung.”

Changbin must have overheard him, because he stops in the middle of a sentence and turns around to glare at Seungmin. Felix looks mildly relieved to get a break from Changbin’s rambles. Not in a rude way, it’s just that he hadn’t really been able to follow his arguments.

“Yah!” Changbin yells. “I could do it!”

His loud voice must have woken Jisung up, because the witch lifts his head from Minho’s lap to glare at him.

“Shut up”, he says.

It’s meant to sound rude, but Jisung is too tired to get his emotions across, so it sounds way whinier than it’s supposed to.

“You should be on my side in this!” Changbin argues. “They’re literally insulting us both right now. We could do it, couldn’t we, Jisungie?”

Jisung yawns, and Hyunjin takes his chance to jump into the conversation.

“Do what?” he wonders.

The mischievous twinkle in Changbin’s eyes is very worrying to Chan, who’s watching this entire thing happen in silence. Maybe he should intervene.

“A body switching spell!”

The way Jisung perks up would have anyone worried. Chan casts a quick glance at Minho, but his boyfriend looks just as interested in this as the kids. Great. If Minho supports this, there will be no stopping them.

“How complicated is it?” Jisung asks, not directing the question at anyone in particular.

Seungmin opens his mouth to answer, but Chan beats him to it.

“No, no, no.” He shakes his head. If he lets them entertain this idea any longer, they’re definitely going to try it, and he would rather have his kids stay in their own bodies for now. “Let’s focus on one thing at a time, yeah? We’re getting on the boat soon. You can talk about this more when we get home.”

Given their very short attention spans, Chan hopes they will have forgotten all about this conversation by the time they get home. That’s usually what happens, but you can never be sure. Sometimes ideas like these get stuck in their heads, and once that has happened, there’s nothing anyone can do to stop them.

He’s lucky, because no one argues with him. Seungmin and Jeongin go right back to bickering with each other. Jisung moves over to Hyunjin and joins him as he plays with the Tamagotchi. Felix scoots closer to Minho, taking Jisung’s previous place on his lap. Changbin jumps right back into his conspiracy theories, this time talking to Jisung and Hyunjin. The two of them actually manage to keep up with what he’s saying.

On the way here, they started a lot of trouble within the first hour on the boat. Chan hopes it’ll be better on the way back.

After a quick glance at the people he’s traveling with, he decides that anything less than total chaos is impossible. All he can do is hope that no one sprays deodorant into another person’s eye this time. Or get lost on the ship. Or lose their passports. Or get question by security. Or…

Well, you get the point.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello stranger (aka the minchan backstory) will be posted on wednesday, and i'll post it as the first story in this series because i like having things in chronological order ^-^
> 
> anyway thanks for reading! :D


End file.
